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The Affliction
It means.
anger and hate,
self mutilation.
longing and loss,
growing frustration.
It lends
genius and vision,
engaging inspiration
energy and fervor
creative expression.
It steals,
hope and dreams,
lovers and friends,
deeply consuming.
dark and demeaning.
It is,
often amazing,
affectionately despised,
an ever confusing,
disease of the mind.
i suspect we are all afflicted in similar ways just as we are all a people of potions who picks our poison and takes our risks. I've missed you. Not writing anything new lately?
The muse is a fickle one isn't she? Comes and goes at her own whims.
I love this peice. It has a steady, almost growing rhythm to it. You can interpret this piece inso many ways, which just adds to the magic. The last stanza was my personal favourite, and really made me realise my personal relation to the poem.
But i'm curious to know, as Ruth is, what did you originally have in mind when you wrote it?
Awesome job, as always, Lauren x
That last stanza is so powerful that it almost functions as an indepedendent poem within the poem. However, I will take a somewhat contrary position about defining the nature of the afflction (this being questions in the prior two comments). By allowing the affliction to be unstated, you make it universal, and allow any reader to substitute his or her own experience there. This gives the poem a deeper resonance.
Starward
i just read my other comment of this piece, i didnt check the date, but i relate with this so much now, to a depression and eating disorder. To that thing which drives such 'afflictions', which lives inside your head and becomes your friend. The friend who saves you, ultimately only to gain your trust, consume and destroy you. It's a hard concept for alot of people to get i guess, if they havn't been there.
the last stanza's still my favourite. However much pain 'she' has caused me, however much i tell myself i hate my affliction, it is somehow beyond my capacity.
x
powerful piece but what particular affliction are you speaking of here?-mental illness? It's not defined..